NEW YORK – Seritage Growth Properties, the real estate investment trust spun off from retailer Sears Holdings Corp., soared as much as 17 percent after billionaire Warren Buffett invested in the company.
Buffett reported a passive holding of 2 million shares, representing an 8 percent stake, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. Seritage began trading this year after Sears created the business to capitalize on its land holdings. The real estate investment trust owns hundreds of properties, which it leases back to Sears to be operated as department stores.
Buffett highlighted commercial real estate and farmland in his 2014 letter as the type of investments that will produce results year after year. His firm, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., teamed up with Leucadia National Corp. in 2009 to buy the business that would become Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, a lender and servicer.
The billionaire didn’t immediately return a request for comment sent to an assistant at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire.
